Oral Contraceptives Survey – Your Voice Counts

Leslie Carol Botha: Many women who have posted comments here are also struggling with side effects from their synthetichormone birth control. Unfortunately, doctors are not hearing our concerns – because the literature and the information they received from the pharmaceutical companies does not include the mental, emotional anxiety, depression, fatigue, brain fog and confusion – not to mention weight gain women might be experiencing while taking these menstrual suppressants.

My colleagues at Hormones Matter have developed an Oral Contraceptive Survey – to collect women based research – meaning research based on our experiences about the uses, efficacy and side effects of oral contraceptives – not the pharma-funded research that spins data to meet their desired outcomes. By the year 2015, 200 million women will be on birth control – most of that synthetic hormones. We need to raise our collective voices now. Please take the time to fill out this survey. Our physicians need to know that our concerns are real.

I love the term Hormones Matter is using for their collection of surveys – ‘Real Women – real data’.

Oral Contraceptives Survey Final Weeks: Take the Survey Today

Hormones Matter
April 14, 2013
Hormones Matters Team

We are pleased to announce the final weeks of data collection for the oral contraceptives survey. Over 450 women have shared their experience with oral contraceptives; the good, the bad and the ugly. Our goal is to gather data from 500 women so that we can determine which oral contraceptives are safest and have the fewest side effects. We’d also like to know if oral contraceptives work for the myriad of non-birth control related medical conditions for which these medications are frequently prescribed. If you have ever taken oral contraceptives, please take a few minutes to complete this important, anonymous, online survey about oral contraceptives. You do not have to be currently using oral contraceptives to complete the survey. Please share this link among all your female friends and family. We’re relying on the power of women and social media to help make this survey a success.

More Information about the Oral Contraceptives Survey

Increasingly, girls and women are prescribed oral contraceptives (birth control pills) for a variety of health issues unrelated to birth control or pregnancy prevention. Many of these uses are off-label and have little data regarding their effectiveness. While oral contraceptives are effective at preventing pregnancy, it is not clear whether they are effective at treating the other conditions for which they are prescribed. We think it is important to understand why oral contraceptives are prescribed, to whom, for how long and whether or not they work. As the first of many Real women, real data surveys, we are happy to introduce the Oral Contraceptives Survey.

Purpose of the Oral Contraceptives Survey

Women and their physicians need more data about the uses, efficacy and side-effects of oral contraceptives. There is a lack of data about the general health of girls and women who use oral contraceptives and about the efficacy of these pills in treating non-birth-control related conditions. The purpose of this survey is to fill that data void; to learn more about the off-label uses for oral contraceptives – why birth control pills are prescribed and whether or not they work for the host of non-birth-control related conditions.

Who Should Take the Oral Contraceptives Survey

If you are currently using or have ever used oral contraceptives, you should take this survey.

How Long Does the Oral Contraceptives Survey Take?

The survey takes approximately 10-15 minutes to complete.

Is the Survey Anonymous and Secure?

Yes. We do not collect personal identifying information and the survey is hosted with SSL encryption using a verisign certificate Version 3, 128 bit encryption.

How Will the Data be Used?

To inform future research and women’s health decision-making.

Who is Conducting this Research?

Researchers from LucineTM, Hormones MatterTM. For more information on Lucine, click here.

Author: Leslie Carol Botha

Author, publisher, radio talk show host and internationally recognized expert on women's hormone cycles. Social/political activist on Gardasil the HPV vaccine for adolescent girls. Co-author of "Understanding Your Mood, Mind and Hormone Cycle." Honorary advisory board member for the Foundation for the Study of Cycles and member of the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research.